you seem to know what you can and cannot handle - as well as your back. Enjoy the rest.

Ditto,  I second what he says.   Your whole article speaks of how well you know yourself and what's best for you.  Good!

BTW, my son went to a Smoke Shop yesterday and I saw some really neat pipe stands,  and a Meershen?  is that spelled right?  don't think so.  Anyway the cashier told me about them and how they take on a neat appearance if one uses a cloth on the pipe when it's smoked....cool!  One pipe stand was a horse's head,  the other was an Indian headdress.

Meerschaums are about all I smoke now.

Forget the silliness about holding it with a cloth or a velvet glove or any of that other nonsense. The only people who worry about such things are the truly nutty collectors trying to get a perfectly colored pipe. The skin oils do alter the coloring but I think it just makes them more unique and interesting. You should always make sure your hands are clean when handling them though.

The best things about them are that:

a) they need no breaking in at all

they are carved in so many wonderful designs and each one is truly one of a kind as they are all hand carved

c) they are the coolest, best smoking pipes in the world. Tobacco smoked in a briar pipe tastes nothing like the same tobacco smoked in a meer.

I have a nice little collection of meers and intend to add more when I can afford to do so.

There are two places in the world where the material comes from, a place in Turkey, and a place in Africa. You can tell the ones from Africa as they are typically glazed. This is because the material is of a lower quality. Always buy the nice, white Turkish ones. Those Turkish carvers are masters.

Thanks, that's my thinking exactly.

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